Colin Powell: Close Guantanamo Immediately

Posted on Jun 10, 2007

Colin Powell has come out against Guantanamo Bay: “Guantanamo has become a major, major problem ... in the way the world perceives America and if it were up to me I would close Guantanamo, not tomorrow but this afternoon.” The former secretary of state has been eager to rehabilitate his image in recent years after a disastrous WMD sales pitch at the U.N.

Powell added that the military commission system used to try detainees should also be shelved in favor of more “equitable” and constitutional procedures under federal law.

Reuters via Washington Post:

“Guantanamo has become a major, major problem ... in the way the world perceives America and if it were up to me I would close Guantanamo, not tomorrow but this afternoon ... and I would not let any of those people go. I would simply move them to the United States and put them into our federal legal system,” Powell told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“Essentially, we have shaken the belief the world had in America’s justice system by keeping a place like Guantanamo open and creating things like the military commission. We don’t need it and it is causing us far more damage than any good we get for it,” he added.